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© 2026 Stellar Development Foundation
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By Sikadesk
Sikadesk is a stablecoin liquidity and modern OTC infrastructure platform built to enable high volume access to stablecoins across Africa. OTC trading still happens through scattered WhatsApp and Telegram chats; an approach filled with delays, fraud risks and unreliable settlement. Sikadesk replaces that outdated process with a secure, automated and professional trading experience.
For this grant, we will integrate two building blocks from the official SCF Integration List: the Stellar Anchor Platform (SDF) and Stellar Wallets Kit, settling in Stellar USDC. We are deploying the Anchor Platform and connecting it to Sikadesk's existing OTC matching engine and mobile-money rails.
The problem (who we serve and why it matters now):
Ghanaian businesses that import goods or run crossborder trade flows cannot reliably access dollars through banks, FX is scarce, rationed and slow.
Importers and trading desks paying counterparties in China, Dubai and the UK lose a huge percentage per transaction sourcing dollars informally and wait days to settle.
These users have already proven the demand: they have moved $62.3M through Sikadesk since September 2025, onboarded through full KYB with risk-based review and tiered trading limits.
What this award builds; three integrations, one outcome:
1. Stellar Anchor Platform: Automated USDC on/off-ramp
What we integrate and why: The Anchor Platform handles the full SEP stack (SEP-1/6/10/12/24/31/38). We connect its callback hooks to our OTC engine so that a GHS deposit via mobile money is automatically converted to USDC on Stellar and routed into an OTC trade, and an OTC sell automatically triggers a GHS payout via mobile money. This is the core of the build.
Why it's important to our success: It turns Sikadesk's manual OTC desk into an automated, standards compliant on/off-ramp that any Stellar wallet or app can connect to, and it brings our existing business volume onto a regulated USDC rail.
2. Stellar Wallets Kit: Business wallet connection
What we integrate & why: Business users connect their own Stellar wallets inside the Sikadesk console to fund OTC trades and receive USDC settlements directly to wallets they control.
Why it's important: It removes custody friction and lets businesses self-custody their USDC, which is what serious treasury users require.
**3. Stellar USDC: settlement asset.
**USDC on Stellar becomes a first-class settlement asset in the matching engine, alongside the existing USDT flow on Celo/Tron/BSC/Ethereum. We gradually migrate business volume onto Stellar. This aligns $63.4M+ of our existing transaction volume with regulated asset infrastructure and brings recurring trade-finance activity onto Stellar mainnet.
Sikadesk becomes one of the first Stellar anchors in Ghana backed by a high-volume OTC liquidity engine. The anchor inherits the depth of our order book, meaning tighter GHS/USDC spreads for every Stellar wallet that connects than a retail-only anchor can offer.
4. Production infrastructure posture: transaction submission and monitoring run on Alchemy's managed Stellar RPC (primary), with Horizon used for payment observation and as fallback, and public endpoints as secondary fallback. Soroban RPC is not on the critical path for this build, as settlement uses native Stellar USDC payments rather than contract-based escrow.
5. Custody: the anchor's Stellar USDC operating and escrow accounts are secured by Stellar native 2-of-3 multisig, with KMS-backed signers (distinct from the hardware-wallet signers used on Sikadesk's existing EVM escrow). No release proceeds without the full signature threshold, and there is no single-key emergency override; a circuit breaker halts new deposits on anomaly detection while custody of existing funds remains protected by the multisig.
$112.0K
$63.4M total OTC volume since September 2025, with unbroken month on month growth and steepest acceleration in March-June 2026: admin.sikadesk.com/stats
20 Businesses onboarded.
Volume is generated by Ghanaian businesses and trading institutions buying stablecoins, onboarded through full KYB with risk-based review and tiered trading limits.
Current settlement is predominantly USDT on Celo https://dune.com/sikadesk_market/sikdesk-celo-onchain-volume?utm_source=share&utm_medium=copy&utm_campaign=dashboard, with smaller volumes on Tron, BSC and Ethereum. Verification link: admin.sikadesk.com/stats
Settlement quality: average time-to-settlement of 30 minutes against a sub-1-hour target.
Live on MiniPay: Sikadesk is already listed as a mini-app inside MiniPay (Opera's stablecoin wallet, 15 million+ of users) . MiniPay users who complete Sikadesk's KYC/KYB have their connected wallet automatically registered as a payment account. 300+ users have organically joined the waitlist for the upcoming retail buy/sell feature, with zero paid marketing.
Socials Media:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/sikadesk/
Backed by Upright Ventures: https://x.com/celo_camp/status/2029933490322423924?s=46
Budget: $25,000
Milestone 1: Anchor Foundation & Business Onboarding (SEP-1, SEP-10, SEP-12)
Brief Description: Deploy the Stellar Anchor Platform and implement the foundational anchor protocols: SEP-1 discovery, SEP-10 wallet authentication, and SEP-12 KYC. Includes designing and building the console screens for Stellar wallet sign-in, mapping Sikadesk's existing KYB verification tiers into the anchor's KYC flow, and the backend work to bind anchor sessions to existing business accounts.
How to Measure Completion: A business can sign in with a Stellar wallet and a verified business is recognised as approved.
Estimated Duration: 3 weeks
Budget: $8,500
Milestone 2: Stellar Wallets Kit Integration
Brief Description: Integrate Stellar Wallets Kit: wallet connect, address read, and USDC balance display inside the Sikadesk business console. Scoped to the SDK integration itself, matching the Integration List's estimated effort for this partner.
How to Measure Completion: A business can connect a Stellar wallet (e.g. Freighter) from the console, and the console displays the connected wallet address and USDC balance.
Estimated Duration: 1 day
Budget: $650
Milestone 3: Business Wallet Experience: Console & Backend Integration
Brief Description: Build the console and backend work supporting business wallet interaction on Stellar. A connected wallet (e.g. Freighter) can sign a Sikadesk-initiated OTC-funding transaction directly from the console. On connection, the system detects whether the wallet has an active USDC trustline and, if not, prompts the user through establishing one before proceeding. The connected wallet is persisted and validated against the business account, extending the existing per-institution-per-network wallet-uniqueness pattern already used for EVM wallets. On the admin side, incoming Stellar wallet registrations surface in the existing payment-method review queue, where staff approve or reject them before the wallet is usable for live trading, extending the current admin approval workflow to Stellar addresses.
How to Measure Completion: A business connects a wallet without an existing USDC trustline and is prompted to establish one before the flow continues. A business with a connected, approved wallet signs a Sikadesk-initiated OTC-funding transaction from the console. An admin reviews and approves a newly connected Stellar wallet from the existing payment-method review queue, and the wallet is unusable for trading until approved.
Estimated Duration: 5 days
Budget: $2,600
Milestone 4: Automated USDC Settlement on Testnet
Brief Description: Build the USDC settlement adapter connecting the existing OTC matching engine to USDC payments on Stellar, update the settlement screens to show the Stellar leg, and run a pilot with three existing business clients on testnet.
How to Measure Completion: Three businesses each complete an OTC trade that settles in USDC on Stellar testnet, verifiable on Stellar Explorer, with a demo video of the full flow.
Estimated Duration: 2 weeks
Budget: $13,250
Budget: $37,000
Milestone 5: Anchor On-Ramp - SEP-24 Deposit (GHS/USDC via Mobile Money)
Brief Description: Design and build the SEP-24 hosted deposit experience so a GHS deposit via mobile money is automatically converted to USDC on Stellar and routed into the OTC engine. Includes the deposit UI, mobile money sandbox integration (MTN/Telecel/AirtelTigo), and backend routing into the matching engine.
How to Measure Completion: A user completes a deposit on testnet where mobile money GHS comes in and USDC is received on Stellar, verifiable on Stellar Explorer.
Estimated Duration: 2 weeks
Budget: $10,800
Milestone 6: Anchor Off-Ramp — SEP-24 Withdrawal (USDC/GHS)
Brief Description: Design and build the SEP-24 withdrawal experience so an OTC sell automatically triggers a GHS payout. Includes the withdrawal UI, payout routing to mobile money (dummy payout on MTN for testnet), retry handling, and reconciliation.
How to Measure Completion: A user completes a withdrawal on testnet where USDC is sent on Stellar and a dummy payout is triggered to a mobile money account, with the on-chain leg verifiable on Stellar Explorer.
Estimated Duration: 2 weeks
Budget: $9,350
Milestone 7: Programmatic Flows & Quotes (SEP-6 & SEP-38)
Brief Description: Implement SEP-6 programmatic deposit/withdrawal and the SEP-38 quote service, with quotes sourced from the live OTC order book. Shares the same rails as SEP-24.
How to Measure Completion: An external wallet completes a deposit and withdrawal via SEP-6 on testnet, and the anchor returns firm GHS↔USDC quotes via SEP-38.
Estimated Duration: 1 week
Budget: $5,950
Milestone 8: Risk Controls & Closed Beta
Brief Description: Build the circuit breaker that halts deposits (never withdrawals) when risk thresholds trip, wire velocity limits and AML screening into the anchor flows, and run a closed beta with users on testnet.
How to Measure Completion: Deposits halt when a threshold is tripped while withdrawals stay available; at least 5 beta users onboard and complete a full deposit → trade → withdraw cycle on testnet, with a demo video of the full on/off-ramp.
Estimated Duration: 2 weeks
Budget: $10,900
Budget: $50,000
Milestone 9: Mainnet Launch - Anchor Live with Cross-Border (SEP-31)
Brief Description: Deploy the full anchor to Stellar mainnet, secure Stellar USDC operating and escrow accounts under 2-of-3 native multisig with KMS-backed signers, implement a standards-compliant SEP-31 receiving endpoint with an internal payout test, and complete the production infrastructure, security, and rollback setup needed for a live financial service. This milestone is scoped to a compliant receiving endpoint validated internally. Sikadesk's existing cross-border partner relationships form the natural onboarding path after the grant.
How to Measure Completion: The Sikadesk anchor is live on Stellar mainnet listed as supporting USDC and GHS, and an internal inbound test transaction is received and paid out, verifiable on Stellar Explorer.
Estimated Duration: 2 weeks
Budget: $16,700
Milestone 10: Production Mobile Money & Real-Money Verification
Brief Description: Take mobile money live in production across MTN, Telecel, and AirtelTigo, including the production payout integration and reconciliation, and run team-only real-money round-trips before public launch.
How to Measure Completion: Production payout integrations are operational on all three mobile money networks; at least five real-money production round-trip transactions (GHS deposit -> Stellar USDC settlement -> OTC trade -> GHS payout) are completed; Stellar transaction hashes are provided for all on-chain settlement legs, independently verifiable on Stellar Explorer; a reconciliation report matches mobile money deposit reference, Sikadesk internal transaction ID, Stellar USDC transaction hash, OTC trade reference, and last-mile payout reference, with redacted mobile money payout confirmations and no unresolved discrepancies; a demo video shows the complete production flow.
Estimated Duration: 2 weeks
Budget: $10,600
Milestone 11: Anchor Listing & Automated OTC On/Off-Ramp Live
Brief Description: Pass the Stellar Anchor Validator suite, submit for anchor directory listing, and launch the automated USDC OTC on/off-ramp to business clients in production, including production launch fixes and monitoring.
How to Measure Completion: Anchor validator passed and directory listing submitted: the anchor passes the Stellar Anchor Validator suite, and the directory listing application is submitted with the supporting evidence pack. A business completes a real-money USDC OTC round-trip in production, verifiable on Stellar Explorer.
Estimated Duration: 1 week
Budget: $9,250
Milestone 12: Dashboard Update, User Testing & Stabilisation
Brief Description: Update the existing public stats dashboard (admin.sikadesk.com/stats) to include Stellar USDC volume alongside existing chain data, complete professional user testing with Ghana-based business users, and run a post-launch stabilisation window.
How to Measure Completion: The public dashboard shows live USDC volume on Stellar reconciling with Stellar Explorer; user testing feedback is collected from real business users; a minimum of $500K in OTC volume is settled in USDC on Stellar mainnet within 30 days of launch, verifiable on Stellar Explorer.
Estimated Duration: 2 weeks
Budget: $13,450
Emmanuel Kusi, Co-Founder & CEO
Emmanuel Kusi is a seasoned Web3 and blockchain management professional with over 8 years of experience spanning product growth, ecosystem development and strategic leadership. He has held key roles including Country Director at Tezos Ghana, CMO/CCO at Soccersm, and Developer Relations Lead at AyaHQ, where he spearheaded major hackathons across Ghana and Nigeria. As a founder and executive leader of Mafteach Digital, iExchange and serving as Regional Director, Africa for Laissez Faire Group; Emmanuel has built a strong track record in driving market expansion, partnerships and operational strategy. He is also the Cofounder and CEO of Sikadesk, where he focuses on scaling the product and delivering sustainable growth across emerging markets.
Jovells Appiah, Co-founder & CTO
Jovells Appiah has a background in computer engineering with over 7 years experience in Web3 development, specializing in smart contracts and blockchain infrastructure. At Sikadesk, he leads software development. He previously worked as a full-stack Web3 developer at Mowblox and served as a Senior ICT Assistant at KNUST, where he contributed to building digital solutions for university-wide systems and IT infrastructure. He has won multiple hackathons and bounties, where our team secured 1st place with iExchange. Additionally, he graduated from the Mowblox Web3 Bootcamp, earning the Best Peer Mentor award for guiding fellow developers. His work in Web3 extends beyond development. He actively contributes to open-source projects, helping drive blockchain adoption across Africa. Oversees the engineering team for quality and on-time delivery and owns technical compliance and risk controls and for this build.
Portfolio: https://jovells.havlink.com Github: https://github.com/jovells
X | LinkedIn
Patrick Amenuku, Lead Developer
Software developer with a cybersecurity and computer science background, spanning full-stack, frontend, and cloud engineering. Tech lead at Sikadesk. Previously a frontend developer at Touchstack Technologies, building web and mobile applications that interact with blockchains. Multiple hackathon wins (1st place once, 2nd place twice); smart contract CTF competitor ("The Rekt Games") and smart contract auditor on Cantina. Active open-source contributor in the Stellar ecosystem via Grantfox and Drips Network, built the development CLI and backend tools for Pollar (pollar.xyz), an embedded-wallet onboarding SDK enabling social login and frictionless USDC payments on Stellar without users managing keys or XLM; contributed to Ledger Lens (proof-of-reserves and multi-chain audit tooling); implemented Soroban on-chain logic for TrustUp Contracts (github.com/TrustUp-app/TrustUp-Contracts), covering reputation scoring, credit lines, escrows, and liquidity pools for decentralized BNPL. Authored the AnonVote protocol token spec and a contract-initialization reliability guard, and added a staking-lifecycle integration test suite to StellarConduit. owns wallet and frontend integration and the mobile-money reconciliation system architecture for this build.
Github: https://github.com/PatrickKish1
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/patrick-amenuku
Justice Essiel, Blockchain Architect
Close to a decade of core engineering experience spanning pre-LLM AI, software leadership, and blockchain infrastructure. Builds indexing solutions on The Graph Protocol for Revert Finance, PancakeSwap, and Uniswap; multi-year Graph ecosystem contributor with a hackathon win and an active role in Graph Builders DAO. Active Stellar community member and Surge Stellar winner. Previously founded Shikawallet (fintech). Owns owns Anchor Platform deployment for this build.
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/essiel-justice · Surge Stellar win: x.com/senajustice/status/1807722743078486182
Awura Abena Amponsah, Regulatory Compliance and AML Officer
Results-driven fintech executive with over 9 years experience in regulatory compliance, virtual asset service provider (VASP) licensing, and financial crime risk management across West Africa. Serving as Executive Director and CEO at Mamoru Digital Ghana Ltd, where she leads the company’s Regulatory engagements (including AML/CFT framework development, Data Protection Commission registration, and ISO 27001 certification scoping) strategy and operations.
As Regulatory Compliance & AML Officer at Sikadesk, Awura brings hands-on expertise in building compliance infrastructure for digital asset businesses, encompassing KYC/KYB programme design, counterparty onboarding, wallet screening (Elliptic), stablecoin contract governance, and multi-bank relationship management across Ghana’s regulated financial sector. Her background spans OTC brokerage operations, FX compliance documentation, and cross-border payment structuring within Ghana’s regulatory framework.
A former country manager at YellowCard, she has developed deep familiarity with Bank of Ghana, SEC Ghana, GIPC, GRA, DPC and ORC processes, and has advised multiple digital asset and fintech ventures on regulatory strategy and compliance buildout. LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/awura-abena-amponsah?utm
Julian Andoh, Head of Business Development
Julian has over 5 years experience in operations, stakeholder engagement and project implementation. He has coordinated multi-stakeholder initiatives across youth development, financial services, and organizational operations, supporting planning, budgeting, documentation, monitoring, and reporting.
With a background in Banking & Finance and experience in banking, administration, and operations, Julian combines strong organizational skills with a practical approach to project management. He is passionate about building efficient systems that enable teams to deliver measurable impact.
As the Charter President of the Rotaract Club of Accra-La East, Julian led the execution of several community development projects while establishing governance systems and managing partnerships with NGOs, private organizations, and community stakeholders. LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/julian-andoh?utm
Jovells
Emmanuel
No other submissions.